Jun 27, 2008 -- SUMMER KOLLEL FEATURES ACTIVITIES FOR ALL AGES AND THROUGHOUT COMMUNITY ****** FOR SECOND YEAR, SPECIAL LEARNING PROGRAM FOR WOMEN Teaneck will be home to a series of special programs of Torah learning – for men, women, and youths – sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) from the end of June through the beginning of August. The Keter Torah RIETS Summer Kollel, the most popular of the numerous summer kollelim across the country sponsored by the CJF - Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), will be held from June 30 to August 7 at Congregation Keter Torah, 600 Roemer Ave. Guided by Rabbi Shmuel Maybruch, rabbi at the Community Shul at Yeshiva University and a professor in the Stone Beit Midrash Program at RIETS, the Kollel is an incubator for rabbis and lay leadership. The Kollel members – all students at RIETS – will engage in Torah learning in the mornings and afternoons. They will then lead a series of learning programs with local elementary, middle, and high school youth, including chavruta learning for both boys and girls; “Mishnah Madness,” an adventurous journey through the Mishnah, for boys in 1st through 8th grade, on Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m.; “Mitzvah of the Week Workshop” for girls in grades 6, 7, and 8, on Tuesdays at 6 p.m.; and “Pizza and Parsha” for boys in 1st through 8th grade and girls in 1st through 5th grade on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m.. In addition, each Kollel member will spend several nights in the Keter Torah Beit Medrash to bolster the Kol Torah (sound of Torah) and serve as role models for the community. Rabbi Maybruch will deliver daily lunchtime shiurim (lectures) on the topic of “Hilchot Aveilut” (laws of mourning) for men in the community. These lectures are free of charge and are followed by lunch. A second program, the Beit Midrash Program for Women, will be held from July 7 to July 31 at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, 1650 Palisade Ave. Now in its second year, it is designed to provide women of all ages with the knowledge and tools to become both Judaic scholars and role models for the Orthodox community. The initiative is an outgrowth of the success of last year’s Beit Midrash Program for Women in Teaneck and YU’s Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS), which supports the advancement of a higher level of education for women in a traditional community, creating a movement of women’s learning, and sharing their scholarship with the Jewish community. As with the Keter Torah CJF-RIETS Summer Kollel, the Women’s Beit Midrash will offer a multi-faceted agenda tailored to different segments of the community. The Female Fellows Program brings together a group of 10 women who will engage in advanced Torah learning under the direction of Rabbi Moshe Kahn, a professor at YU’s Stern College for Women, and other prominent scholars and educators. Each Monday and Wednesday during the month-long program, these Female Fellows will share their knowledge with other women in the community at “Lunch & Learn” shiurim (lectures). Participation in this program requires advanced preparation. The Beit Midrash faculty will also deliver shiurim that are open to all women in the community, on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and on Tuesday evenings during July. Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of YU’s Center for the Jewish Future, explained that the Keter Torah RIETS Summer Kollel and the Beit Midrash Program for Women serve various purposes. They are “a laboratory for students to grow in their own learning and afford them the opportunity to gain confidence and enhance their public speaking skills, ability to develop lectures, sermons, and youth and educational programs, all under the supervision and mentorship of distinguished rabbis, scholars and educators. In turn, Rabbi Brander said, “our Kollel members are empowered to share their knowledge with interested people of all ages, thereby creating a vibrant and energetic Torah community, one that fosters a caring and inspirational environment for adults and children alike to grow with our students and scholars.” Moreover, Rabbi Brander said that “these programs, as with the many others we sponsor throughout the country, represent our continuing effort to shape the summer Kollel paradigm and create experiences that will serve as incubators for Jewish leaders. They also represent a vibrant initiative to enable communities to experience the wealth of resources and presence of Yeshiva University right in their backyard.” This year, the YU Summer Kollel will also be in Los Angeles, Edmonton, Denver, Chicago, Passaic, NJ, and Israel The multidisciplinary Center for the Jewish Future harnesses the educational resources, commitment to service, and intellectual capital of Yeshiva University, its array of undergraduate schools, its graduate and professional schools, including Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and Wurzweiler School of Social Work, its affiliates, and its extended constituencies to articulate a vision for the future while working to make the vision a reality. To do so, the Center sponsors a comprehensive series of initiatives focusing on education, research, profess